‘UTTARA-RĀMACARITA ’
We often assume that literary standards, to which the accidents of our generation have given currency, are of absolute value, and expect that all works, no matter when or where they were written, should conform to those standards. The assumption, however, is far from right. Every nation develops its own ideal of art, as it does its own ideal of life; and it would be quite unfair to judge a writer by standards of which he was not aware or which he perhaps deliberately set aside. It is, therefore, necessary before speaking about a work like the U ttara-ramacarita to know exactly what the author’s aim was in writing it. The theme of the highest Sanskrit poetry is human emotion, and the poet so represents it in his work as to arouse in us a kind of disinterested joy which is known as rasa and which, on account of its disinterestedness, may be described as spiritual in character. In experiencing this unique joy we forget ourselves, and feel, for the time being, as if elevated above the realities of everyday life. In other words, the Sanskrit poet furnishes us in his poetry with a form of spiritual diversion. That is his foremost aim, and he subordinates the whole technique of his art to its attainment. All other aims such as criticism of life, portraying of human character, inculcation of moral truths, etc., — so far as they are recognized as aims at all — recede to the background. Keeping in mind this ideal of Sanskrit poetry, let us describe the U ttara-ramacarita under the usual heads of plot, characterization and rasa .
PLOT
According to a well-known rule of Sanskrit literary criticism, the plot of a Nataka — the chief variety of the Indian drama — must be familiar, and be either historical or legendary. The signifi- cance of this restriction on the choice of the subject is to avoid the distractions of a new and complex story. Rasa being the spirit and soul of a drama in common with other forms of poetry, the plot becomes merely its outer vesture, and it serves its purpose best when it thrusts itself least on the attention of the spectator. In fact, in a perfect drama we should not become conscious of the
